Hidden Costs After Water Damage: Rebuild, Contents and Hydro

The hidden costs of water damage are the ones that come after the drying invoice: rebuilding what was cut out, cleaning or replacing belongings, the hydro used by drying equipment, living costs if you have to move out, and your insurance deductible. On many jobs these add up to more than the mitigation itself. Knowing them at the start lets you budget properly and make a better decision about claiming.

The rebuild is a separate bill

Mitigation ends when the house is clean and dry. At that point there may be drywall missing from the bottom of the walls, no baseboard, bare subfloor and insulation removed. Putting it back is reconstruction, and it is usually quoted separately. We do mitigation only and refer the rebuild to local contractors, so with us it is always a second contract.

Rebuild items people forget to budget for:

• Drywall, taping, priming and painting. Painting often means the whole room, since a patch rarely blends.
• Insulation and vapour barrier in exterior walls.
• Baseboard, casing and door jambs that swelled.
• Flooring, plus underlay and transition strips.
• Lower cabinets, toe kicks and vanities that soaked up water.
• Electrical checks or replacement of outlets and devices that got wet.
• Permits, if the rebuild changes plumbing, electrical or structure.

Matching what was there

This is the cost that surprises people most. If the same hardwood or laminate runs through three rooms and one room is ruined, the replacement has to match or the whole run has to be redone. Discontinued flooring, older trim profiles and aged paint colours cannot always be matched. The same thing happens with kitchen cabinets when only the lower boxes are damaged.

Insurers handle matching in different ways, and some policies limit it. If you are claiming, ask your adjuster early how continuous flooring and matching sets are treated.

Contents: cleaning, storage and replacement

Furniture, rugs, boxes and electronics in the wet area all need a decision. Some items can be dried and cleaned. Upholstered pieces, mattresses, particleboard furniture and paper goods that sat in water often cannot, especially if the water was contaminated. Costs here include:

• Moving contents out of the work area and back again.
• Storage, on site in a pod or off site, for the weeks the rebuild takes.
• Professional cleaning of rugs, clothing and soft goods.
• Replacement of what cannot be saved.
• Your own time sorting, listing and photographing everything.

Basements used for storage are the worst case. Cardboard boxes on a concrete floor wick up water quickly. Plastic bins on shelving are cheap protection for next time.

Hydro: the hidden cost of water damage drying

Drying equipment runs around the clock. A typical setup of several air movers and one or more commercial dehumidifiers pulls power all day and night for the length of the job, and you will see it on the next hydro bill. The amount depends on the number of machines, the days they run and your rate plan, so we will not put a figure on it here. A contractor can tell you the amperage of each machine so you can estimate it.

Do not switch equipment off overnight to save power or cut the noise. Stopping and starting stretches the drying time, which costs more in equipment days than it saves in electricity. If you are claiming, ask the adjuster whether the extra hydro is reimbursable, and keep the bills from before and after to show the difference.

Living costs, the source repair and other extras

A few more items belong on the budget sheet:

• Somewhere to stay, meals and laundry, if the kitchen or only bathroom is out of use or the water was contaminated. Policies with additional living expense coverage may pay the increase over your normal costs on a covered claim.
• The plumber, roofer or appliance repair that fixes the cause. Insurance usually pays for the resulting damage and not the failed part.
• Your deductible, which comes off any claim payment.
• Testing of older building materials. In older homes, some plaster, flooring and insulation products may contain asbestos and need to be tested before they are cut out, which adds cost and time.
• Time off work to meet contractors and adjusters.
• Upgrades. If you choose better flooring than you had, the difference is yours.

How to keep the surprises small

Ask every contractor exactly where their price stops, and get the rebuild estimate while the drying is still under way so there is no gap between the two. Keep one list of every cost, with receipts. The total on that list, set against your deductible, is the number to take to your broker when deciding whether to claim.

The best saving is speed. Water that is extracted the same day means less drywall cut out, fewer drying days, less hydro and a smaller rebuild. Start a simple cost sheet on day one with these headings: source repair, mitigation, rebuild, contents, hydro, living costs, deductible. Fill it in as quotes arrive.

Common questions